Cantaloupe Jam

Talk about a jam that practically no one has ever tasted before. I don’t understand why this isn’t on the grocery store shelf since it is a common fruit. Cantaloupe has a distinctive flavor and that flavor carries over well to the jam. I can still remember the day when I was 6 years old and went out into a farmer’s field with the farmer in order to pick what he called muskmelon. I remember him pulling out a pocket knife out of his pockets with his large rough hands. He reached down to the field in front of us and picked up a melon. It seemed to me that there were melons everywhere but he told me that he had already picked the field and these were the ones that were too ripe, too big, or too small to have been picked. The sun was burning down on us that day as he split that muskmelon open with his knife. He handed me a piece. It was the first time I had ever eaten fruit in the middle of a field. Well, it was the sweetest, cool fruit I ever have eaten. So now I have the opportunity to put a little of that flavor into a container of jam.

I washed and sliced up one cantaloupe into many pieces. I then put it into my cooking pot along with lemon juice. I brought it to a boil, mashing the fruit all the while. I then added the no sugar-needed fruit pectin. When it was at a hard boil I added the sugar. I let it boil at a hard boil for 3 minutes. After cooling it was poured into freezer containers. My wife tasted it while it was still warm and pronounced it super delicious. That is no small announcement since she is my most strict critic.

Cantaloupe Jelly Recipe

4 cups mashed cantaloupe 

1/4 cup lemon or lime juice

1 pkg no sugar-needed pectin

3 cups sugar

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